Published on 29 April 2016

We interviewed HOUSE Festival and Photoworks co-commissioned artist Felicity Hammond about her new series 'Show Room: The Language of Living'.

HOUSE Festival 30 April – 29 May 2016

Show Room: The Language of Living University of Brighton Edward Street, Brighton alsoPortals: The Language of Living Circus Street, Brighton

a HOUSE/Photoworks co-commission

Felicity Hammond researches the simulated domestic settings and constructed worlds of the ‘renders’ that illustrate architects’ proposals. She photographs digitally manipulated images from property developers’ billboards and glossy brochures and prints them directly onto mouldable acrylic sheets, which are contorted into beautifully crafted, often large scale, sculptural objects.

For this co-commission, Felicity will create a new showroom structure, responding to and exhibited within the University of Brighton’s new home for photography and moving image, situated in a former American Express building in Edward Street, Brighton. A companion installation is also shown on the hoarding of the former Circus Street Market site in the Circus Street development area. These site-specific installations draw attention to the distinct relationship between the architectural design of educational institutions, the historical value of the area they inhabit, and the future living spaces that will be born out of them. Looking at the role that education plays in urban regeneration, and the impact it has on the socio-economic landscape around it.

With these ‘photo-sculptures’, the artist turns virtual worlds into a visually curious physical space. Hovering between the real and imagined they create an environment that “sits somewhere between the archaic and futuristic, between luxury and decay.”

Hammond explains, “For the last few years my work has responded to London’s continually changing urban terrain, but Brighton and many other global cities are undergoing the same transformations. My works challenge the rendered space of architectural luxury-living projections and I use new photography technologies to allow CGI images to enter into the physical space. My photo-sculptural works are warped and distorted, adopting the properties of the degraded simulated image”.

Felicity Hammond (b 1988, UK) graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2014. She has been a finalist and nominee for numerous awards including Magnum and Photo London Inaugural Photographer Award 2015, Saatchi New Sensations 2014 and Metro Imaging Printing Award 2014. Her work has been exhibited widely, in 2015 with South Kiosk Gallery at Unseen, Amsterdam; Saatchi Gallery, London and The Lowry, Manchester. She was showcased in the British Journal of Photography’s International Photography Awards 2016.

Show Room: The Language of Living & Portal: The Language of Living is open 30 April – 29 May 2016